Skeleton bands and dancers in butterfly skirts join Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Thousands of people turned out Saturday to watch Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade as dancers, drummers and floats made a festive turn down Paseo de la Reforma all the way to the historic colonial main square.
There were bands disguised as skeletons and dancers with skull face paint performing in indigenous costumes. The aroma of traditional resinous copal incense hung strongly over the display.
A skeleton drum group played samba-style rhythms, while dancers blocks away moved long skirts painted to resemble the wings of monarch butterflies, which traditionally return to spend the winter in Mexico around the Day of the Dead.
In a nod to social change, there was a group of drag performers dressed as “Catherinas,” skeletal ladies dressed in 1870s fashion.
The holiday begins on October 31, in memory of those who died in accidents. It continues on November 1 to remember those who died in childhood and then on November 2 celebrates those who died as adults.
The city also celebrates Day of the Dead with a huge altar and a parade of colorful fantasy sculptures known as “albrigis.”
Such parades were not part of traditional Day of the Dead celebrations in most parts of Mexico, although “muertidas” celebrations in the southern state of Oaxaca include a similar festive atmosphere.
A Hollywood-style Day of the Dead parade was adopted in 2016 by Mexico City to mimic a parade invented for the scenario of the 2015 James Bond film “Spectre.” In the film, whose opening scenes were shot in Mexico City, Bond chases a villain through crowds of revelers in a parade of people wearing bodysuits and floaties.
Once Hollywood dreamed up the scene that would open the film, and after millions saw the film, Mexico dreamed of its own celebration to match it.
Mexico City resident Rocio Moran came out to watch the show in skull makeup. Moran, who runs a company that measures valuations, was not bothered by the confusion between old and new.
“It became popular with the James Bond movie, and I think it’s good because it brings economic activity to the city,” Moran said. “I love it. I love the progress, and I love that tourists come to see it.”
“I think Day of the Dead has always been around. Now they use marketing, imagine it, and make it so the whole world can see it,” Moran added.
